Patrick Henry Speech Analysis

A role of an individual in society can be played many ways, one of them being that people should fight for their country. This can be exhibited in "Speech to the Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry ,where Henry believes his country should fight for freedom against the British. He is calling on the patriots of Virginia to arm themselves in order to be prepared to fight.. The author encourages this message by using emotional appeals and literary devices. In the text, the author exposes the audience to prepare for war by conveying them to fight for their country.
. Henry suggests that his country should fight for freedom. In order to support this position, Henry encourages his audience to fight for freedom with the appeal of authority to point
In order to support his argument, he uses an appeal of vanity to point out he wants peace. Leading to this, Henry talks about working together and fight. Henry reveals his point when he states, “ Peace, Peace”. but there is no peace.” He emphasizes that action needs to be taken. He ties theses ideas by alluding the idea of receiving the assistance from God. He persuades them to work together as a country to stop the British. Henry laters says that “different men often see the same subject in different lights.” He describes the “light” to represent the truth . This is important because he is aligning his view to fight with God’s purpose. He positioned himself as a Christian fighting for
In addition, Henry also uses the appeal of fear to convince them to fight for freedom. To understand this example Henry mentions being British rule. Leading to role, Henry tries to persuade people emotionally, trying to make people feel that if they don't fight, then they are going to be slaves using the emotional appeal of fear. As Henry puts it, “I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery.” The “it” refers to the colonist’s need to fight for freedom. The idea of slavery would scare the colonists and anger them to fight. Basically, he's saying that there is no other option, you either let the war happen and have freedom or you don't and be slaves. In addition, Henry uses a metaphor to emphasize that they are already like slaves. He later quotes “Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!”. (23) This is important because the clanking of the chains relates the submission to slavery creates fear & anger in the audience. In this quote, he creates a urgency in the audience to revolt against the British. He explains how the colonies would later become the prisoners under the rule of the British if they don't